Panda Mask

Our friends over at Tea Collection invited us to preview their latest collection which was inspired by a China theme. The first item that caught our eye was the sweetest long sleeve-T with a timid looking panda in front. The panda is considered a national treasure in China, but the World Wildlife Fund explains that "despite their exalted status and relative lack of natural predators, pandas are endangered. Severe threats from humans have left just over 1,800 pandas in the wild."

We decided to collaborate with Tea and help to bring some much needed attention to the endangered panda, by creating a cute craft that would supplement their newest collection. Paper cuttings are a traditional Chinese craft, and so we decided to modernize this idea by creating a Panda Mask.

WHAT YOU NEED:

DOWNLOAD AND PRINT your templates (below) on cardstock. Print the templates at 100% on your standard sized paper. Choose which colors you would like each piece to be - we stayed traditional with black, white and pink.

LAY the template over the desired colored cardstock, cutting along the printed lines through both pieces of paper. Discard the template scraps.

CUT your shapes out and LAY them in place on the panda's face.

GLUE the individual shapes together to form the mouth, the ears, the mouth and the nose.

GLUE each shape in their position.

USE a sharp tool to make your eye holes. Poke carefully and make sure they do not get too big!

CUT strips of duct tape to make tabs on either side of the mask. This will be where your ribbon goes.

FOLD the strip of duct tape over to cover the adhesive.

USE a hole punch to make two small holes in the duct tape tab.

FEED your ribbon through both holes.

REPEAT on the other side until both sides of your mask have ribbon attached.